Greetings Laura! I will be graduating on May 8th in the Massage Therapy w/ my Associates Degree……therfore I’m interested in possibly attending one of your classes on “how to pass the nat’l exam”. You were refered to me by a girl who with attending your class, she passed and this was her second time. Any suggests of would be appreciated; also a schedule of your classes will be great. I’m @ Gaston College, but I could travel within the 15 or 25 mile radius…..THANKS! LOVE AND LIGHT:)

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I am in total agreement with you, Laura. As long as I have been a therapist I have ALWAYS made time for getting massage and other bodywork or spa services. It has kept my work and perspective fresh and my body out of pain. As you mentioned it also paved the way to friendships with a number of massage professionals, many of whom referred clients to me and/or my spa when they weren’t able to accomodate a clients needs or schedule. A number of them have also come to me for business coaching/consulting help, for which I am also grateful and honored.

Getting massage regularly has also helped me stay in touch with the reasons why I became a massage therapist…that is to help people feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And possibly best of all, by getting massage regularly, I have always been able to honestly tell my clients they needed to do the same thing. It’s called practicing what you preach and it is one area that I’ve always followed through on that charge. I hope you will all do the same:-)

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My policy as a busy independent massage therapist was the following:

“Please give 24 hours notice for any cancellation or appointment change. If you are unable to give 24 hours notice or “no-show” a scheduled appointment, I reserve the right to charge you for the missed session if I am unable to fill the time with another client.”

That being said, I gave my regular clients a once a year exemption figuring that I would probably have an unexpected problem at some point or another and have to cancel on them with short notice.

Later in my day spa we had to expand this policy to include a credit card or gift certificate deposit or guarantee for any appointments scheduled. As we had expanded from a mostly regular clientele to one that included a number of newbies and “special occasion” or gift certificate clients, the number of late cancellations and no-shows grew. Thus the policy change. It was pretty well received by most people and has become a pretty standard policy in the industry, at least in larger spas and practices as well as resort areas.

Now that I am busy as a spa consultant and in other career endeavors… and can use every bit of extra time I can get…I don’t worry too much about my massage clients canceling. However, with my consulting clients I do still ask for 12 hours notice for cancellations or I charge a half-fee.

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Hi Laura and fellow MTs -

This is a big topic for sure. In my work as a spa consultant I hear all kinds of stories about compensation issues, independent contractors vs. employees and so on. Before I worked as a consultant, I was also an independent contractor who later opened a business of my own and became a spa owner and employer of many others. As such I have a pretty broad view of the subject.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to deciding upon pay structures and employee vs. IC status. Every business is different and must look at the factors that affect it - area/location, price of services, target market, cost of the facility’s overhead, product costs, taxes, availability of workforce, and business model and goals. All of these must be considered, among many other things, before deciding upon how and what everyone gets paid.

Sadly, many business owners that I talk to did not take the time to think about any of these issues before they opened up and just decided to pay people “the going rate” or perhaps a little bit more so they could attract a good staff. Then after a few months or more into the business, they aren’t able to draw much of a salary let alone profit. Their debt is climbing as their own morale drops lower and lower.

So as much as I want all licensed therapists to make a ton of money through doing massage, I can’t agree with that happening if it is to the detriment of the owner and business. How I wish that all massage and spa professionals could get a clear picture of the costs, risks and stresses that their employers deal with! (Non-service provider spa/practice owners would do well to switch roles as well.) Having been on both sides of this issue, I know there would be a much greater understanding about the fees/commissions/salaries being paid out and less of a mind-set that most business owners are taking advantage of their practitioners.

The bottom line is that there has to be a middle ground…a place where both owners AND employees/staff can both profit and succeed. That they can all be rewarded and respected for their hard work and investment in the business and industry. And that they all can work together to create massage and spa workplaces that are truly healthy and healing for everyone that comes through the door.

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This is a great topic for massage therapists to be discussing. I would love to see associations such as the AMTA, etc. really get behind forums about working conditions for MT’s. I have been a business owner in the past, and value the risk and responsibilities that go with that role, so I realize that therapists need to strive to see things from a business owner’s point of view. On the other hand, I have been a practicing MT for thirteen years, and with the expansion of the field has come a real lowering of stamdards. Some business owners, unfortunately, see new graduates of massage school as an expendable resource. Massage therapists working in these conditions risk burnout or injury, and, as independent contractors, they are left to fend for themselves when the consequences emerge. We can do better! We all need to work together to raise awareness, and to raise the standards of our profession!

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While it may not rock the boat to give an IC a gift of appreciation occasionally, my point with Tina’s story above is that she apparently has some therapists working for her who don’t appreciate the good situation they’re in–and as you and she pointed out–she’s already taken them on a cruise. I personally would not be giving out any more rewards of any kind for people who are only out for themselves and not helping my business as a team player.

As for paying for a therapist to go take continuing education, it is an inherent responsibility on therapists who want to remain Nationally Certified or professional members of AMTA, not to mention keeping their state licensure, to get continuing education. That therapist has to get continuing education whether you pay for it or not, if any of the above apply to her. Your offering to subsidize it is very generous, and not something I personally would take a chance on doing. Again, I think it’s a grey area of the IC law (and if there are any attorneys reading this, please let us know) Two, she may get into the class and find that she doesn’t enjoy doing it after all, or she may turn out to be not good at it. If I were the IC, I would feel funny about being obligated to stay somehere because the owner did me a favor. How would you place a value on the time? Say you pay 2000.00 towards the training. And let’s say for argument’s sake your therapist makes 40.00 per hour. That would only be 50 hours she’d have to work to pay you off–just a good week with a little overtime. Think it out carefully before jumping into such a deal.

Or even as part of our business plan — I want to offer lymph drainage. I have a therapist who is interested in studying lymph drainage. I agree to provide xx dollars towards the cost of the class. The therapist agrees to continue to work here for xx amount of time after the class(es)?

As a one-time thing (and not something offered routinely to every therapist) is it different from taking them on a cruise?

You are being taken advantage of, that’s for sure.

You’ve made me wonder how I would interview potential MTs to weed out those with a “week to week paycheck” mentality. I wonder if asking these kind of questions would work:

- How do you envision your massage practice growing over the next 5 years?
- What do you want to build as a massage therapist?
- What is your vision for your massage practice?
- How do you currently market your practice or how do you intend to market your practice?
- What are your long-term goals for yourself as a massage therapist?
- Why did you choose to become a self-employed business owner?
- What are your working towards with your work as a massage therapist?
- What are your plans for continuing education in the next few years?
- Why do you want to work here instead of working on your own and keeping all the income for yourself?

The owner of the practice where I work interviews for massage skills (as many practice owners do). How do we interview for business skills? I think that’s something we don’t always think about.

Do you think it would make a difference if you rewarded your therapists with massage-related gifts?

- Tuition support for continuing education (with an agreement to continue working for you for xx months after receiving the training).
- A gift certificate to Massage Warehouse, an equipment manufacturer, a subscription to a trade journal (Massage magazine obviously comes to mind!)
- A years membership in the professional society of the choice.
- Pay for them to attend a professional conference or convention
- Pay for them to receive bodywork from someone who is very skilled in a modality they are interested in
- Pay for their license renewal
- Send them to a business oriented class like “Taxes and Bookkeeping for Massage Therapists” with Margo Bowman
- Reference books (massage or business-oriented)

These help reinforce your message that you are a massage therapy business.

In addition, I find some schools don’t really turn out MTs with a long-range vision or a business mindset. Can you look at your employee base and draw any conclusions about the schools they came from and which ones seem to be doing a better job at that?

You may be doing all these things and I’m wasting my e-breath. Let me know if any of these things have worked for you if you have tried it because I’m curious. I’m thinking of teaching a workshop for local MTs who want to start group practices (and be the boss) and I’d love to know what does and doesn’t work in the field.

Kelly

I LOVE Laura Allen\’s business model! I wish I could work for her! I resolve to work for myself, for the most part, because most business owners out there take advantage of massage therapists. The worst pay I must admit to having accepted (briefly, and only in the most desperate of times) or have been offered thus far was $12/hour from a chiropractor in Brookline, MA to do spot massages on his chiropractic clients, $25/hour from a chiropractor in Palm Beach Gardens to do 55-minute full body massages (and he kept $50-$60/hr), and then I was offered something similar from two day spas — one in Jupiter, FL and one in Prosperity Gardens, FL, and I turned them both down, and these people did not take very kindly to me when I declined their offers, but so be it. I have my pride, and my profession to uphold! I understand that some of these spas in Florida are paying some ridiculous percentage, like 37.06% and then, to top it off, they are charging a 20% service fee.

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